


Waterfall

by QueenofCheese (Supertights)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Exploration, Female Friendship, Gen, Minor Appearance by Shiro, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2019-08-05 02:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16358825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Supertights/pseuds/QueenofCheese
Summary: Allura tempts Pidge out of her cave with the promise of new toys and access to parts of the ship no one's been in for ten thousand years just so they can spend a day together.





	Waterfall

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for Day 1.

Pidge narrowed her gaze at the princess, who widened her own eyes in an attempt at innocence, making them...  _ sparkle? _ Okay, she was definitely making them sparkle. Too bad Pidge was immune to anime sparkle eyes.

“You want to do what again?” asked Pidge in a low growl. She’d heard Allura the first time with her blah blah, pick a floor and look around the castle together for a few hours, talk about anything but the war while Coran fixed the latest broken rakjunker or was it a blockjakker, then there was maybe something about jewellery, lost treasures, new toys... Pidge had vagued out around then because it sounded like bribery.

“I want to go to the sixth floor and explore it. I remember it had many things you and I enjoy, and we spend precious little time together. Some team building was in order.”

Colleen Holt had raised no fool and Pidge tilted her head at Allura, considering. “You want some girl time,” she said  abruptly , but as  quickly regretted snapping at the princess. The Altean woman's eyes welled up with shining tears in a scene straight out of the anime Pidge had lent Lance. How it had ended up on her laptop she couldn’t… oh wait, she could. She wanted to share in something that her missing brother had loved. If it was watching his favourite monster girl anime then so be it. Allura cleared her throat, breaking Pidge’s moment of introspection. “You realise that Lance is a better fit for a day doing girl stuff,” said Pidge, adding, “He has a lot of sisters.” As if those words clarified why she’d nominated him to hang out with Allura for the day. The princess frowned, not immediately seeing the value in Lance’s sunny presence.

“We are not doing _girl stuff_ inherently, Pidge, we are spending time together, there is a difference. I spend time with all of the paladins but I would not ask _you_ to brush my hair or see if any of the perfumes in storage were still viable or bake cookies or explore the weapon vaults... although you are welcome to join any of us next time. We're,"  Allura picked up one of Pidge's tools and gestured between them, "going to the sixth floor, where... well, many good and interesting things are on the sixth floor.” Pidge extricated the tool back out of Allura's grasp.

For a brief moment, Pidge contemplated stabbing herself in the knee to get out of going then took a breath. No, it wouldn't work, Allura would stick her in a pod and be waiting to go when she was out. “Fine, one time,” sighed Pidge, and pulled her headphones off her head, snapping the laptop shut. She needed a break anyway.

“I knew I could count on you, Pidge.” Allura's frown vanished and she smiled. “I've asked the other paladins not to disturb us.”

“Which means they’ll find every excuse to disturb us. How are you so bad at this?” Groaning, Pidge pushed away the equipment she’d surrounded herself with and stood up. Rediscovering lost rooms in the castle worked with her inquisitive nature... but not if the others turned up in the middle of it and stole all her goodies. She opened a channel to the other paladins. “Guys, I’m gonna help Allura find a really old book about Altean shoes that she might’ve left on the eighth floor ten thousand years ago, if you want to help, we’d appreciate it, it might take a while so if you don't have anything better to do....” Closing the channel again, she noticed Allura staring at her. “What?”

“We’re going to be on the sixth floor, Pidge, and we’re looking for treasure not books.” Allura had a wrinkle of confusion between her perfect eyebrows.

“Yeah but  _ they _ don’t need to know that and now I’ve made sure they don’t want to come and help either.” She didn’t want to share any new toys-- the ones she was going to find, the ones Allura had promised her. Lance  _ might _ come, if only to spend time with the princess. The allure of books and shoes or books about shoes made the possibility  _ less _ possible.

Allura’s mouth made a little “o” shape, then she winked. “Clever thinking, Pidge, let’s go.”

The first few varga were full of Allura revisiting her past. She picked up everything she saw and Pidge asked  _ a lot _ of questions.

She’d finished jamming a bunch of things into her backpack when Allura turned towards a large door. A glowing sign in Altean winked above it and Pidge wrinkled her nose. It screamed night club or bar to her but the princess made a noise, a sort of high excited squeak, and rushed over to it. The door opened and Allura stepped through without hesitation... Pidge followed but with no real enthusiasm. Altean music started up in the background and the princess swayed to the beat of it as soft lights began to wink on. ' _ Must _ be a club,' thought Pidge.

“I'd forgotten this existed,” said Allura, her expression verging on mournful. "Fun was the first thing we abandoned at the outbreak of war." Pidge moved closer and leaned in so Allura could feel her presence. Before them, a second circular inner room sank into the floor a few feet, and a clear wall surrounded it. It flexed when Pidge touched it and pushed her back a step. Around the outer wall, strips of low cerulean light blinked on revealing more of the space. Comfortable seating nested all around them with low tables, and a set of stairs led away to the right. Following the stairs with her eyes, Pidge could  make out an observation booth high above them. The central room was smaller than the training deck but larger than the ballroom.

"What is this?" asked Pidge, dropping her bag to one of the chairs near her.

Allura looked over with a fond gaze. “It’s a flight chamber, Pidge.”

"Flight chamber?"

The princess took Pidge’s hand and dragged her towards the clear wall. An entry to the inner chamber opened when they approached. Inside, spotlights switched on, dazzling them both. Raising a hand to shade her eyes, Allura ordered, “Lights to half.”

They dimmed, casting soft blue beams across the room. Soon the beams began to change colour and move, re-forming in light patterns on the floors and walls. To Pidge, it was as if they were inside a giant kaleidoscope.

She wrinkled her nose in confusion. “Isn't a flight chamber kind of redundant with the jet packs?”

“The room was not for training but for the recreation of the Altean support crew.” The princess still held Pidge’s hand and dragged her down into a hidden changing area. Taking a black piece of cloth from a locker, she began to strip out of her dress and change.

Pidge slapped a hand over her eyes, only uncovering them when Allura giggled and tapped her shoulder.

It was even worse than she'd thought, and more skin tight than what they all wore beneath their armour. It appeared to Pidge's critical gaze, to be like an all-in-one pair of skinny jeans. The sort that you couldn't even move in without dislocating your hip.

Allura held one up against her, measuring it to Pidge’s smaller body. "Nope," said Pidge.

“Do you trust me, Pidge?”

“Of course I don't trust you right now,” she replied  honestly . Allura was radiating all kinds of mischief, her smile dangerous and sharp. It was the also most unguarded Pidge had seen her for a while.

The princess shoved a second suit and a helmet into Pidge’s hands. Pidge studied it, the helmet like the one Allura wore in space, or a motorcycle helmet from Earth. “Let’s change that... and your clothes.”

“Where are the jet packs?” asked Pidge as she  slowly changed, shuddering as the suit crawled up places Pidge thought it had no right. The helmet fit but had limited visibility and none of it good in her opinion. She would set about redesigning everything, or at the very least, add it to the list.

“We won’t need them, Pidge,” said Allura, pushing her back out into the flight chamber. They stood in the very centre, and Allura added, “Begin sequence, level one.”

Pidge felt her body lift off the ground with an uncontrolled jerk. It was a different experience than flying with jet packs, and she felt a sudden kinship with Hunk. "Nope, not puking," she moaned.

Allura grabbed her hand, pulling Pidge around to face her. “Eyes on me, Pidge, the feeling will pass.”

“It’s like a free fall wind tunnel,” said Pidge, to take her mind off her stomach. She’d had limited experience with them at the Garrison.  Where instructors threw kids in and waited for them to spin back out, green and puking, or, glowing with excitement . She’d skipped the whole thing, entering the garrison late. The rest of her year had already been through and were onto the simulators. Her stomach settled with only slow, gentle, spinning.

“This is our secret, Pidge, something  just for us,” said Allura through the helmet comm. “Something we can do together for fun when we need time out. Begin level two.”

Pidge couldn’t see where the wind was coming from but they rose higher into the air. “This  _ is _ kind of awesome,” she said  softly . “I could do it again if I had to.”

“Remember when I asked you if you trusted me, Pidge? Begin level nine.” Allura was still smiling, her voice joyful as she let go of Pidge and spun away. She cut through the air with all the grace of a dolphin in the ocean.

Pidge’s mouth fell open, she wanted to do what  _ Allura _ was doing. She wanted to be sleek and deadly but right now she was more like a flailing starfish. Her arms stretched out, trying to stabilise her body. “Teach me,” she begged, unable to keep the excitement from her voice. “Please?”

“Are you sure?” Allura caught her hands again and they spun back into a lazy circle. “Very well, another time though. There's so much more to see today.”

“This doesn’t look like a book on ancient Altean shoes. It's also not the eighth floor,” said an amused voice, piping through their helmet channel. Shiro waved from the observation booth as they floated past him. "Having fun?"

“Trust Shiro to be the only one who would actually want to help us,” said Pidge, laughing and waving back at him. Immediately losing stability, she flipped over in the air. “He  _ can _ keep our secret though.”

**Author's Note:**

> Better late than never or it better never than late?


End file.
